Tag Archives: baking

The Nation Has An Appetite

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Celebrate your independence from store-bought cookies! (Um, maybe I’m trying too hard to get into the spirit of the day.) This recipe came from my paternal grandmother, and I’ve never seen another chocolate chip cookie recipe quite like it. The cookies have a wonderfully light texture. And I know this will sound odd, but I actually don’t like these right out of the oven. I prefer them once they’ve cooled and have lost a little bit of their crispness.

These are also excellent if you need to apologize to anyone in your life. For instance, if you gave someone else a pizza dough recipe that broke his brand-new food processor. Not that I’ve ever done anything like that.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter [or Earth Balance]
1 cup (7 oz.) granulated sugar
1 cup (8 oz.) brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon milk [or soy/almond/whatever milk]
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups (18.5 oz.) all-purpose flour*
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
10-12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Stir briefly and set aside.

Using a stand mixer (or sturdy electric hand mixer and a large bowl), cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, beating on medium speed for approximately 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg and milk and beat for 30 seconds. Turn mixer to low and gradually add oil and vanilla while beating. Continue beating for an additional 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add flour mixture—start blending on slowest speed and gradually increase to medium speed. Beat until just combined and no more flour is visible. Stir in chocolate chips.

Use a cookie scoop, spoon, or your hands to form dough into 1.5-inch mounds. Place about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets. (These cookies do spread a fair amount while baking.)

Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating sheets on top and bottom racks halfway through. When done, cookies will still be pale in the middle but edges will be starting to brown.

Let sit on cookie sheet for 5 minutes (these can be a little fragile just out of the oven), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight plastic container or ziplock bag for up to 1 week. This recipe makes a fairly ridiculous quantity of cookies (maybe 5 dozen?), but the cookies also freeze beautifully.

*I generally replace half the flour with white whole wheat four. That makes the cookies into health food, right?

The Nation Has An Appetite

Heart of Darkness Brownies

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These brownies are quick to make and require very little in the way of equipment. (No mixer!) Plus they're dark enough to satisfy the most serious chocolate craving. Any type of cocoa powder will work—either natural or Dutch process. The latter will give you darker brownies. My cocoa powder of choice is Valrhona.

from Cocoa Brownies recipe in Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich

Ingredients
11 tablespoons (5.5 oz) unsalted butter [or Earth Balance]
1 1/4 cups (8.75 oz) granulated sugar
1 scant cup (3 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1.75 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions
Preheat oven to  325°F. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan with foil. (There's no need to grease the foil.)

Melt the butter in a medium heatproof bowl set directly in a wide skillet of barely simmering water.

brownies 1

Add the sugar, cocoa, and salt. Stir with a spatula until ingredients are blended and the mixture is hot. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is warm (not hot). Mix in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing vigorously with a spatula after each addition.

brownies 2

When the mixture looks thick and glossy, add all the flour at once and stir until you cannot see any streaks. Then mix vigorously for 40 strokes. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

brownies 3

Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly dirty looking. (Note: This, to me, is the trickiest thing about baking brownies. When you're baking a cake, you want the toothpick to come out clean. But brownies baked to that level of doneness will be too dry. You want these to be set but still moist in the middle.) Cool on a rack. Lift the edges of the foil liner and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. Store in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. If they last that long.